


I am coming home to you

by KaelsMiscellany



Series: The Road of Excess [3]
Category: From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series
Genre: Alternate Universe - Regency, F/M, Ghosts, Historical, References to Aztec Religion & Lore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-25
Updated: 2017-07-25
Packaged: 2018-12-07 01:05:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11612736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaelsMiscellany/pseuds/KaelsMiscellany
Summary: 1816: Between Life and Death Richard remembers.





	I am coming home to you

**Author's Note:**

> Oh hey, this thing still on? *taps dusty mic*
> 
> Welcome to part the unexpected! Kinda wish the breakthrough on this had happened sooner, but I've also been working on a million other things in the past few months (including an original novel!). So thanks for all your patience, I'll have the last part out *waves hands* eventually. I also went back and made some minor edits/ general cleaning up of the other two fics.
> 
> Title comes from "Thus Always to Tyrants" by The Oh Hellos. Story happens concurrently w/ _Hungry Work_.
> 
> Content warning for some minor racism in one of the scenes.

The sliver between life and death is uncomfortable to inhabit. Even for Richard Gecko, blessed as he is. On one end is the clattering, slithering voice of Xolotl. Dog, skeleton, and monster all in one the god calls him to Mictlan, to final rest. It’s a seductive sound, but Ritchie holds out.

Seth helps, a light so stubborn it could outwait the sun. Easy to hold onto in the daytime when Xolotl’s call is loudest for Richie. Night he can stand on his own, even make brief trips into the world of the living. Not that Seth had enjoyed talking with a dead man while going about the business of resurrection.

Now Seth isn’t the only one that holds Richie to the land of the living. Death hadn’t been unexpected after Tanner, but Richie had expected to end up where Seth was, not in Bethel still. Katherine Gecko as bright and stubborn as Seth.

As surprised as he that first time he appeared in their home. His surprise had come more from the fact she accepted it. Instead of calling for calling for an exorcism or believing herself to be going mad, for all that she kept asking when he would pass on in true. Katie’d always been a special sort of strange on the other hand. Far more alive than even Seth could sometimes be. A wonder then that she’d willing wedded herself to a dead man.

_At first Richie had no plans of staying in Bethel. It was far too small a place, his...diet likely to draw attention, even if he didn’t kill. It was a place to stop and take a breather before heading further east to bigger cities and people packed so tightly together that they ignore each other for the sake of privacy._

_That had been the plan._

_But on his second day there, he stepped out from the post office after dropping off a letter to Seth. His brother better damn well keep his promise of visiting their uncle. He found himself stopping a few steps from the door, and staring._

_She was young—if he didn’t at least have a decade on her he’d be surprised—modestly dressed, her dark hair pinned up in a style that’s fallen out of popularity in the cities, but had probably just reached here. She wasn’t, perhaps, the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen—he was willing to admit that Kisa would hold that position for his now very long life—but there was something about her that pricked at the edges of his mind._

_Pain drew him from his musings and he hissed, pulling himself back into the shade. He made himself stare at his smoking skin as it healed. Not like him to be distracted by women, not usually. Certainly not since he’d been changed. He wasn’t some randy boy to get so distracted he forgot about the sun, or the fact he needed to focus if he wanted to pass for human._

_When Richie looked back out on the street she was gone. Closing his eyes he took pointless deep breaths before opening his eyes again and heading back to the saloon._

_-_

_Despite logic saying he should leave, he stayed. Kisa had taught him to trust his intuition over logic, and his intuition was telling him if he leaves he’ll miss out on something important. Intuition didn’t say whether or not it had to do with the woman, but doesn't see the harm in studying her._

_It was Sunday, and in a small town like this most everyone would be going to church. He cleaned himself up as best he could and went, grateful it was an overcast morning. The church itself was a bit rundown, but well-kept. It was full, which spoke more to the town than anything else. He wasn’t sure what they might do if they caught a monster like him, best not to find out._

_He didn’t burst into flames when he crossed the threshold, although there are whispers. He could hear them, but ignored them in favor of scanning the pews to find the curious woman._

_He spotted her up at the front, next to an Asian—an oddity, but Richie didn’t much care. He would love to sit right behind her, eavesdrop on whatever conversations she had. This would be a slow war of information however, and he knew drawing too much attention to himself too quickly would spell disaster. So he went up as far as he dared and took a seat at the far end._

_He hadn’t been in church since before his and Seth’s dad died, but he remembered how the service all the same. It was easy to fall into the rhythm of it. It made sense, rituals should be easy to learn and hard to forget; and even if he turned away from the church he’d been raised in it. In a way his body recalling what to do meant his mind could focus on the important things._

_She believes, didn’t even murmur conversation at all during the whole service. The only times he heard her voice was in chorus with all the rest of the congregation. There was a sweetness to it, like cake. It piqued his interest even more, and now he had to know her name._

_The service ended and the pastor stepsped down to mingle with his people. The woman went up to him and Richie learned two things: the the pastor was her father, and that her name was Kate. Or at least that was what her father called her, Richie’s sure it was short for Katherine. A queenly name, not that she showed it in her bearing; as humble as a human can get._

_As Richie slipped away he wondered what her blood tasted like._

He slips into bed with her. Richie’s sure he makes her cold, even colder than it is outside but he’s yet to hear her complain. Perhaps she enjoys the company. He’d built their home a ways away from everyone else for his own selfish reasons, so it would be quite the walk from home to her father’s house—they’d butchered their horses for meat so long ago he’d had enough time to tell Seth about it.

In the distance he can feel Seth, closer and closer each day. Makes it easier and easier to resist the call towards death. Passing into Mictlan would just make Seth yell at him more than he already will.

“Soon,” he tells Katie. She knows Seth is coming, but anything more than that he’s been hesitant to say. Her faith believes resurrection doesn’t happen until the end times, what will she say when he does so in a week or two?

Not that Seth had been all that accepting when he’d first become what he was. Richie has only curiosity for what Katie will do.

_He didn’t follow Miss Fuller around everywhere, that would be...rude. But there were times when he caught himself watching her should they pass by each other on the street. It was beginning to unsettle him and he knew he should either leave town, or do something._

_Richie felt he was far too...invested now—glad Seth wasn’t here to call him on his bullshit—to just leave town._

_Of course Richie knew he could spend whole days planning things out, but with so many uncertain elements his plans would turn to so much nonsense if he began implementing them._

_He could trick Gods and Lords, make them believe almost anything. Talking to a young woman is apparently beyond him._

_A few days later he sees her coming out of the general store, arms near bursting with items._

_“Would you like some help with that?” It wasn’t too hard to guess that she had even more things waiting to be carried to her home—town gossip told him that her mother died last year making Kate the woman of the house. A chance to speak with her outside of church and most watchful eyes._

_There was a bit of dimple in her smile. “That would be mighty fine of you Mr. Gecko. There are some bags in the store still.”_

_He grabbed them easily. “Your father and brother don’t help?” It was a probing question and perhaps a little rude, but he would think they wouldn’t make her do all this on her own._

_“Daddy’s ministering in the next town over, Scott goes and helps him. They take the cart with them. I hadn’t planned on doing this much, but it’s Scott’s birthday tomorrow and I thought it would be nice to surprise him with cake.”_

_Richie’s glad he wasn’t running any cons or jobs, he’d almost feel bad pulling one over on her. Felt like the serpent in him was coiling around his spine and squeezing tight; a sensation he didn’t like Yet he wasn’t sure that leaving Miss Fuller and Bethel behind him would make it go away. “You have a very lucky brother.”_

_“I keep telling him that, well that he’s lucky to have me as a sister. Don’t think he believes it. Perhaps if you told him he would.” Her grin was as quick as lightning._

_Her words caught him off guard for a moment, the easy joke not what he expected. “I’m fairly certain it behoves me to keep out of family disputes.” Therein lay entanglements that were best avoided—then again she was most likely an entanglement best avoided. Yet here he was, all but throwing himself into it anyways._

_She laughed, “wise beyond your years I see Mr. Gecko.” He should hope so considering his past. “Ah, here we are.”_

_The house by the church was well kept, and small, suited for the small family. “Thank you very much for your help Mr. Gecko.”_

_“It’s nothing,” he won’t try to press his luck and ask to be invited in. “And perhaps I can be of service to you again soon.” He wasn’t sure what he was trying to accomplish. It might have started as simple curiosity, but now, well...Seth would be laughing his ass off if he were watching._

_A blush stole across her cheeks, and Richie had to hold in the urge to bend down and give her cheek a nuzzle, just to feel the warmth of it. He doffed his hat as he backed away. “Miss Fuller.”_

_-_

_Despite Seth being the older sibling it was Richie who remembered their mother. Her dark skin and darker hair making her stand out from all but the slaves back home. The other kids would had made fun of them for that Richie knows, except that Seth had been willing to fight them all over it, and Richie had been too damn unsettling even for most adults. Richie had only been six when she...died, but his memories are clear._

_Her tucking her little monsters into bed, telling them of the Hero twins and their exploits while their father drank; perhaps feeling if he drank enough he could convince himself he was still a good criminal._

_The shouting match the two of them got into when dad had given Seth a black eye. Momma so angry she started yelling Spanish._

_The Jimsonweed she brought into the house. Dad’d been drunker than a skunk, but the smell of it as she’d extracted the seeds woke him up. There’d been even more shouting as Dad threatened to drag her to town hall for attempted to poison him._

_A few days later she’d...disappeared. Daddy said dead, but Richie didn’t believe it._

_Two years later Richie’d done what his momma couldn’t._

Seth and Katie are a curious pairing. She doesn’t know quite what to make of his brother, and Seth hasn’t seemed to grasp the idea that Richie ‘settled down’. Seth’s talents mean Katie has fresh meat, poor woman needs it. Not even Richie can discover the reason for this famine that’s, if the paper’s are to be believed, swept the world.

Watching them fuck is something else. So bright the both of them it’s hard to look. Richie doesn’t know if stars have sex the way people do. If they do he thinks they’d look like Katie and Seth do.

Life so close Richie can almost taste it.

_People were going missing and it wasn’t Richie’s fault. A first he thought._

_It could be because of the famine, the lack of food driving people to leave town. Drifters and vaqueros were known to do that._

_Curiosity pricked at Richie’s mind however, unable to let the idea go. He considered it a form of boredom. He’d spent so much of his life in the rhythm of a thief that he was starting to crave that burst of excitement that came with a job. Katie was a good distraction. Kept him more grounded than he thought she would for all his curiosity in her, but even she couldn’t compare to the rush he was used to._

_Once she’d fallen asleep he’d dress and slip out into the night, the moon all the light he could ever need. From the shadows he’d watch. Bethel didn’t have a darkness like most places did, leastways not in the same way. Too small for the nooks and crannies that would hide crime and vice in a larger city._

_Didn’t mean it wasn’t there. Just had to look crosswise for it._

_Took him a few months. Galling if he thought about it for too long. Safes all but begged for him to open them, since he’d accepted Kisa’s offer people opened to him even more easily. Ritchie’d grown so used to success that failure, even in something so insignificant, frustrated him._

_When he did discover the culprit he’d been almost taken aback._

_Professor Tanner, beside being something of a letch, hadn’t registered in Richie’s mind as a threat. Let alone a man who knew enough of the Mexica to think to pray in the old ways in an attempt to get the crops back. If that was what he was doing, Centeotl and Xipe Totec weren’t names he ever heard pass Tanner’s lips._

_If this famine was the work of the Gods he doubted one man and a dozen deaths would be enough to sait them. That would take the work of a dozen priests and a few_ hundred _deaths Richie would think._

 _Unlike Tanner Richie_ could _speak with the Gods, and it was the work of an hour to discover what they willed._

_Killing Tanner had been easy._

_Richie should have planned it better on the other hand, cutting it to close to dawn had resulted in him being found out. Even if no one still knew what he was. The jail cell they’d thrown him in was dusty. He’d almost laughed when Katie argued with the sheriff about letting her in there to clean it. Poor man hadn’t known what he was getting into._

_It had felt strange, walking toward that firing squad and knowing what would happen. Kisa had saved him from hanging the last time he’d almost died, he didn’t think she’d swoop in this time. He’d passed Katie on the way, her father there beside her. Richie’d opened his mouth to tell her to leave, she didn’t need to see this. The sheriff had shoved him forward before he had the chance._

_He had faith that there was more in store for him than this death, that he will return. Yet if this was final death then he could rest easy knowing it would be the next step in his journey._

Sparks fly from the fire Seth had decided was worth the risk. It’s almost dawn now, Katie still fast asleep curled up among the saddlebags. Now that Richie is living again neither of them are bright and blinding, he almost misses it.

“You hungry?” Seth picks up a stick to move around the dying fire, settling it more into embers.

Richie shakes his head. “No.” He’d forgotten what a rush Kisa’s blood was. It designed to lure people in just as much as the rest of her. Even with all the healing he’s had to do it fills him up. If nothing happens he should be good for a few days. Knowing their luck that might not happen.

Seth looks relieved, proof enough he’s not comfortable with the world Richie pulled him into. Perhaps if he could go back in time Richie would do things differently, but not even the Gods could change what had happened. It’s a comfort to know that despite that Seth’s got his back. “Thanks,” death’s never fun.

A snort. “Won’t be the last time I’ve gotta save your scaly ass.” Down the line Richie’ll save Seth, that’s how it goes; how it’s always gone. “Still can’t believe you got _married_. Not what I meant when I said lay low.” Seth’s gaze floats to Katie.

“Wasn’t planning to,” Richie agrees. She shivers from the cold and Richie pulls the blanket covering her to her chin. His fingers linger to stroke her cheek. “Told you months ago when it happened.”

“Thought you meant you’d just shacked up with a woman, not ‘in the eyes of God ‘til death do us part’.” Richie understands. Katie’s nothing special to look at, another woman in a crowd of them. She lures him in a different way than Kisa had, yet he’d discovered he was as helpless to resist. “She’s something though, I’ve give you that.” When Richie’d been dead he hadn’t had the energy for emotions. More concerned with keeping himself ‘alive’ enough to resurrect.

Not that he feels jealousy now, but it is a different situation now than it was before. Something they’ll have to talk about, once they’re in the clear. “Yeah she is.” It’s strange to him then that he feels no urge to turn her, to make her like him to keep her as safe as possible. “Should get some sleep,” he tells Seth. “I’ll keep watch.” He can sleep in the day, while Seth leads them to New Orleans.

Seth snorts again, but does get up and grab another blanket, laying on the ground a few feet from the fire and curling up.

Richie’s thoughts drift with the embers as he listens to the sounds of Katie and Seth breathing. The Gecko brothers ride again it seems. How much Katie will change that is up for debate, but Richie has high hopes that she’ll excel in it as easily as she’s adjusted to the monsters that live in this world.


End file.
